IS'C' 



(;lkanix(;s in kkk < ri/rruK. 



1;-) 



•». Tlic iipiiuist (loi'S lidi hrcaU liis hiu'U looU- 

 iiiK over his hrdotl-i-oiiihs. Scvnal years a^d. 

 wlicn out" friiMiil Hiiti-liinsoii was in llic (lui'cii- 

 busiiicss, he ii;\\o lis a tifsiTlntion of tin- l)ai'i<- 

 ai"ln' from liaiicllinsr Im-cs tliat many will ic- 

 nii'iiiln'r. Well, with tins sidc-opcuiiifi liivc 

 you tliii|i down on one l<n<'c, sit on your Ix-ci. 

 -.umI iiandii' \(>ur iiccs w ith an case ydu would 

 l\ardly liclicvi' possil)l(\ As to tindin^r tiuccns. 

 it is usually doni' w itliont rt'niovinfi tlu' iVaini's 

 from tlicii' front lianijintjs: swiu'jr tlicm around 

 and lool< down hctwcm them. 



Arc these |)oints honestly taken '.' Come and 

 see foi' your-;elf. Seven miles from the city is 

 AlbtMt 11. (Jrover's lluhhard-hive apiary of 

 from f.V) to l.V) eolonies. Tliis is where my bees 

 and (iiieens are raised. Any man within, say, 

 :!(K) miles of here, who will shij) .">() colonies of 

 Italian bees to this apiary in any othei' hive, 

 and tind all tlie queens as (piickly and easily as 

 Ml'. (Irt)ver will from .">() of his colonit^s of etiual 

 strengtli. will havi' his moving expenses paid. 

 and good wages foi- his time. Is the hive ex- 

 pensive'.' No more than oth(^r single- walled 

 hives. Is it complicated ? Many I^iactical bee- 

 keepers, after seeing the hive itself, say it is 

 mucii more simple than they expected after 

 reading piinted description. A break - joint 

 honey-board is used t)etween brood - chamber 

 and super. Several thousand of the hives are 

 in use in over twenty States. (}. K. Ht^BHARD. 



Fort Wayne. Ind.. Dec. 13. 



[.\s the question of fixed distances and the 

 hnding of the queen by /io< removing the frames 

 has of late been agitated, we asked Mr. Ilub- 

 lianl to give us some of his eN|)erience along 

 this line, in connection with his hiv<'. We have 

 no doubt that he can. iTiany times, tind the 

 (pieen without removing a frame; but for some 

 reason of other, side-opening hives have never 

 been popular with the masses of bee-keepers.] 



THE IMPORTANCE OF SEPARATORS. 



.SIIAI.I, WOODEX SKI'AKATOHS UK TURK OJ! 



THIN? THE SEKIOI'S INCOXVKNIKNCE AXD 



CO.ST IX HAVIXG THEM WKT WHEN PUT 



IX SECTIOX-CASES. 



I have always had quite an opinion as to the 

 importance of separators, and latterly I have 

 raised myo|>inion as to their importance. A 

 good many imperfect sections I have traced to 

 imperfect separators. That is. if a section is 

 nearly linished. and then is moved to some oth- 

 er part of the super where the separator is not 

 exactly like the one where it had been, then 

 wherever the separator comi's a little too close 

 to the .section the comb is likely to tje gnawed 

 aAvay. and little bridges of wax built from the 

 comb to the separator. I have seen a section, 

 one side of which was entirely finished, have its 

 finished side nearly all unsealed just because. 

 when moved, the s[)ace between comb and s(>p- 

 arator was not as great as it had been in its first 

 position. And although lam not sure of it. I 

 think thi're have been cases where the warping 

 of a separator made trouble with a section, 

 although its position had never been changed. 



I think it is pretty gen(u-ally agreed that wood 

 is better than tin for loose separators; and as a 

 large proportion of seinirators us(;d are loose. 

 it becomes an important matter to know just 

 what is the best wood separator. I have seen 

 separators a quarter of an inch thick, and it 

 always seemed to me like a waste of lumixM' 

 and super room. Still. I never u.sed any of that 

 thickness, and it is i)ossible that thev mav have 

 advantages of which I do not know. 'Wln-n 



wood canu' to III' hii'gi'ly U'^cil Im- se|»arators, 

 and liiey consequently came down to a vj^ry 

 moderate |irice, I (leci<led that, the labor of 

 cleaning tiiem of propitlis aftei' being used was 

 worth nH)re than tlie cost of new sepafat<irs. 

 So for several years I have used for kindling- 

 wdod mostof my old separator's. 



Then the(|uestion arose: if they are to be n-^ed 

 but once, is it not worth while to try \ery thin 

 separators'.' So 1 have tried dilferent thick- 

 nesses, from .',, of an inch to ,\; or thicker. The 

 very thin ones seemed to me more desii'able 

 because they would take up less room, make a 

 little less chance foi' propolis in cracks, and 

 especially because they were tougher. For it 

 seems to be trm- that a very thin se|)arat,or will 

 be sliced oft' without breaking the grain of tin? 

 wood as much as it is broken in one tw ice as 

 thick'. Hut upon ti'ial 1 di<i not find the very 

 thin separators (lesiral)le. Sometimes the bees 

 would gnaw away a considerable portion of one 

 edge, and sometimes the sei)arator would curl, 

 as it a|)peared to me. solely because it w as so 

 thin. On the w hole. /,; may be the l)est. 



A knot in the wood, no matter how small, is 

 fatal to its fitness for a good separator. Some- 

 times a sejiarator will be curled a quarter or 

 half inch out of true where no knot can be 

 seen: but the grain of the wood shows that it 

 was in the neighborhood of a knot, and for 

 some distance from a knot th(^ grain is generally 

 twisted enough to allow considerable warping 

 in a very thin piece. 



I don't know what is the best wood, but I am 

 inclined to the belief that poplar or whitewoo(i 

 is not so likely to curl as lindc^i. It is possible, 

 however, that more knots were allowed in the 

 linden that I tried than in the poplar. 



I once got a lot of separators that were not 

 thoroughly seasoned. In fact, they were quite 

 wet. Yon would hardly believe the damage 

 those separators were to me. Being wet. they 

 were too wide, so that I could not put ili the 

 little 14-inch separators on top; and the curl- 

 ingl and the twisting! In some cases, in .spite 

 of their being pressed between the sections, they 

 bent over fully half an inch out of place. And 

 if a section had its ])lace changed, or if a num- 

 ber of unfinislied ones were put together in a 

 super to be finished up. then there was fun. 

 Many a one of those sections came out of the 

 super more unfinished than when it went in. 

 If I ever get any more wet separators I'll put 

 them in the tire to dry, and I'll let them stay 

 there till they've dried into ashes. 



What should be the length of separators? 

 I'm not sure about it. but I think about an 

 eighth of an inch shorter than the inside of tlie 

 su|)i'r. That's tlu^ length I've used them, but 

 possibly I might like better to have them only 

 a sixteenth shorter. If the least bit longer than 

 the space they are to till, they are vin-y trouble- 

 some to get in, and can hi\ got in only by a beiiu 

 somewhere in their length. If too short, one 

 end gets inside of a section, and then the trouble 

 is still worse. 



A further trial, during the jiast season, in all 

 ■my supers, of the little separators on top, con- 

 firms me in my liking for them. Although I 

 had forgottiMi about it. I first saw them used by 

 \i. Taylor. My supi-rs are 17% inchi's long in- 

 side, and four 414 sections take u|) 17 inches of 

 that, leaving a -Ift-inch play at top. for the T 

 tins take up the play at ixjitoin. Now. that % 

 at tlu! tf)p is entirely too convenient a i)lace for 

 bees to fill with jiropolis. and I want it eiitirelij 

 filled with sonu'thing else. Thi'ee seijarators, 

 each '4x'„. just exactly fill it. I supposed the 

 fit would be so tight that it would be almost im- 

 |)Ossible to force these little separators into 

 place: but in actual practice I tind no great dif- 

 ficulty. Besides ki'eping out glue, they are use- 



